East County mat men load up for Masters state-qualifying tournament

East County high school wrestling programs made a significant impact at this year’s San Diego Section divisional championship tournaments with a staggering 62 qualifiers (including alternates) for this weekend’s San Diego Masters state qualifying tournament.

Mount Miguel’s Juan Ruiz and Christian’s David Moreno, who both competed at the Division IV tournament at Mater Dei Catholic High School, along with Steele Canyon’s Jaime Gerardo at the Division II tournament at Del Norte High School, were the lone individual champions out of 13 East County finalists at this year’s four divisional tournaments.Otherwise, it was a respectable medal haul.

A returning state meet qualifier, top-seeded Ruiz (31-2) won all four of his matches by first-period pins. No opponent was able to last two minutes on the mat with him.

Matador head coach Vic Richmond called Ruiz, who placed third at last year’s Masters tournament and went 2-2 at the ensuing state meet, “focused and determined.”

Moreno, making major strides for the still fledgling Patriots mat program, also completed a four-pin day.

He pinned Imperial’s top-seeded Marcus Monzon in 3:17 in the championship round to improve to 24-4 on the season. Included in his championship odyssey was a 24-second pin in the semifinals.

Four East County teams participated at the Division IV tournament. Mount Miguel topped the contingent with a fourth-place finish with 166 points, followed by Santana in ninth place with 74 points, Christian in 13th place with 43 points and Mountain Empire in 15th place with 35 points.

The top four place-finishers qualified to compete at this weekend’s Masters state-qualifying tournament at Olympian High School. Fifth-place finishers at the Division IV finals qualified as alternates.

The Matadors advanced six wrestlers to the semifinals.

Richmond seemed somewhat disappointed, though he admitted he still has a young team. “We only have two seniors,” he said.

Of note, Imperial’s Nick Hart (128) became a rare four-time Division IV section champion when he pinned Mater Dei Catholic’s Karl Moreno in 2:38. Hart’s younger brother, Nathan, won the 140-pound title to make it a family affair.

Division II

Five Grossmont teams participated at the Division II tournament at Del Norte High School. Steele Canyon paced the East County field with a third-place team finish with 142 points, followed by Granite Hills in fourth place with 122 points, Valhalla in sixth place with 104.5 points and Grossmont in eighth place with 73.5 points.

Poway (358.5 points) and Rancho Bernardo (299.5 points) proved to be the class of the division, however.

Lipscomb dropped a 15-0 championship-round decision by technical fall to Poway’s Hampton Boyd while Hawkins lost by a 4:19 pin to Rancho Bernardo’s Chasen Blair and Curran lost by a 2:52 pin to Poway’s Nick Klekas.

Lipscomb, Hawkins and Curran each recorded two pins in the tournament.

Top place-finishers for Helix included Marcus Tucker (108), Armando Lopez (197) and Andrew Poumele (287) -- all with second-place medals.

Top-seeded Tucker dropped a 5-4 championship-round decision to Mira Mesa’s Jasvinder Singh while Lopez dropped a 7-5 decision to Vista’s James Amador and Poumele lost by a 4-1 decision to Carlsbad’s Luis Torres.

Tucker recorded three pins, including a 30-second pin in the opening round.

A pair of East County mat men captured runner-up individual place-finishes: West Hills’ Nicholas Rivinius (172) and Monte Vista’s Blake Schmidt (222).

Rivinius dropped a 3-1 championship-round decision to Brawley’s Damien Gomez while Schmidt lost by a 5:26 pin to Central Union’s Evan Sharpe.

Rivinius recorded two pins, including a 30-second pin in the quarterfinals, while Schmidt also had two pins in the tournament.

There were four third-place finishers among the Grossmont Conference contingent: El Capitan’s Cameron Horton (162) and David Hoskisson (172); and Monte Vista’s Richard San Nicolas (184) and Jose Gonzalez (197).

The top six place-finishers in the division qualified to compete at this weekend’s Maters tournament.